Warcraft Movie Trailer

If ever there was a studio that embodied the difference between winning and leading it’d be Universal.  They basically struck gold with the Fast & Furious movies and have been letting that box office money pit accumulate while floundering about in search of fellow hit makers and it’s served them well with equally successful hits like Pitch Perfect, Despicable Me, 50 Shades of Grey, and this year’s mega box office smash Jurassic World.  The thing is that “experimentation” really is the Universal approach as none of their efforts have been in order to define trends or lead the pop cultural scene, simply attempts to get money making films. 

That’s why, even though Jurassic World made unfathomable amounts of cash and Fast & Furious is on its 8^th film I’d never call Universal trend riders or taste makers.  So their latest venture, a collaboration with Blizzard Studios to bring the massively successful Warcraft franchise to life on the big screen is throwing me for a bit of a loop as it actually seems like the most financially successful yet culturally irrelevant studio in Hollywood has finally decided to step up to the plate and lead the way for a change. 

Directed by Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie and director behind the award winning sci-fi flick Moon and the pretty good if not terribly memorable Source Code, Warcraft looks to be a sprawling, epic fantasy war film about the beginning of the clash between the human led Alliance and the orc led Horde within the fantasy world of Warcraft.  As far as fantasy plots go that’s pretty arch, up there with the broad strokes structure you’d find in classic ‘80s fantasy films like Legend or Krull.  It makes sense that Warcraft would favor simplicity in its story and would even default to a structure more in line with classic entries in the genre from the ‘80s given that Warcraft’s whole selling point rests with its visual aesthetic. 

Video games in general rely on the strict structure of narrative and development of character far less than the mood and atmosphere of a piece that’s evoked via the visual design and ehanced through mechanics so it makes sense that when trying to adapt something like Warcraft the emphasis would end up on getting the visuals translated almost directly to the big screen.  Warcraft is one of the few installments in the fantasy genre that doesn’t labor under the yoke of big name influences like Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones, or even older elements like ‘80s practical fantasy or ‘60s sword and sandal films.  Even though Warcraft draws from the same base of elves, dwarves, and men it supplements that standard set-up with a visualization that’s infinitely brighter, bigger, and more cartoony than almost any other fantasy franchise and it’s endured and proliferated into almost every medium thanks to that design. 

As for the film I’m glad to see things like the giant weapons and the orc and human hero designs being transliterated almost verbatim from the games though I wish there was a hint of other races in this trailer.  Additionally the actual landscape of the film is looking seriously drab an undeveloped, with the bright, flat, sheen of a film that’s relying a lot on CGI and green screening.  That last bit is to be expected but I wish the movie was a bit better at hiding its FX work behind a well-realized environment for its beautifully rendered characters.  Movies like Dark Crystal, Legend, or Willow could get away with a more simplistic, pastoral European visual setting because they were all practical and felt legitimately lived in and even more environmentally dynamic locations like Middle Earth and Hogwarts had a sense of location identity.  Warcraft seems stuck between the two, a lot like the visualization of wonderland in 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, which is a real shame.

What I really love about this trailer though, is the way it seems to be hinting at much richer and more emotionally driven story lurking behind the edited clips of the trailer.  Certainly there are shots of skirmishes and action scenes as well as what seems to be the big, perquisite action scene near the end of the trailer but what’s really interesting to me is the emphasis on family, survival, and ideology that seems to influence the heroes in the trailer.  It’s the small scenes in this trailer that I find most engaging and moving, stuff like the orc parents interacting with their child, the whole situation of the orcs being driven from their lands by natural disaster, and Vikings Travis Fimmel reluctantly seeking a less violent interaction with the orc leaders.  What it reminds me of most is something in between the clashing cultures stuff from Disney’s Pocahontas and the struggle for peace aspects of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. 

I think a lot of folks are actually finding these elements alienating given how unusual they are for a modern film trailer.  Most of the time trailer design is about rapid tempo, evocative lines, and a big money shot or two that everyone remembers and talks about and even though some of those elements are here they’re essentially rendered secondary to the emotional content at the core of the story.  Couple that with the very bizarre design aesthetics on play and the fact that the Warcraft universe involves things like gun wielding armored knights and giant weapons slung around by an army of hulks and I’m not surprised this trailer isn’t necessarily finding the firm grounding you’d expect. 

I’ve mentioned before how the fantasy genre has been experiencing a major power vacuum lately, with old standards like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fading quickly, up and comers like Game of Thrones flaming out in dominance, and the rising trend of up-jumped fairy tales lacking the uniformity or punch of success to dominate the cultural landscape in a meaningful way.  If ever there was a time that Warcraft’s unique blend of aestheticism and emotion had a shot at making big enough waves to cement a place of leadership for the fantasy genre it’s right now, not that it’s competition won’t be fierce.  

Warcraft’s June release date will place it right in between Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them from WB, the former kings of the fantasy genre trying to reassert dominance with a classic franchise, and Alice Through the Looking Glass, Disney’s continuing attempt to cement its fairy tale shaped piece of the fantasy blockbuster pie.  Of all three films I think Fantastic Beasts looks the most fun and likely to take the prize of fantasy leadership but Warcraft seems the most new, original, and deserving of the spot at the head of the table. 

Warcraft is scheduled for release on June 10, 2016


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